#BEST SONG ON THE ALBUM I SAID WHAT I SAID

[mariacallous]

“She’s really giving throwback oblivious mean girl, it’s kind of amazing.” “Omg her saying she got her husband involved, she is SO that woman.” I would love to tell you that these comments, written this summer about Blake Lively, the lead actor in domestic violence drama It Ends With Us, were posted on Reddit by some anonymous misogynistic troll.

Lively had made what looked like tone-deaf promotional appearances to push her haircare and drinks line alongside the film. It was revealed that she had had a scene rewritten by her husband, actor/director Ryan Reynolds, and that she took control over the final cut, which also featured a song by her best friend, Taylor Swift. Everything from Lively’s conduct to her predilection for florals seemed like fair game, spawning a vast amount of negative discourse and tanking her reputation. But the comments above were texts written by me, made in my most active group chat.

On Saturday, Lively filed a complaint with the California civil rights department against Justin Baldoni, both the film’s director and her male co-lead, producer Jamey Heath, production company Wayfarer Studios and its public relations/crisis management retinue, alleging that they actively sought to harm her reputation to pre-empt any possibility of her going public with an HR complaint she made during the film’s making.

Alleging the violation of physical boundaries, sexual and inappropriate comments and the absence of intimacy coordination, the court filing is an astonishing read. It claims that Heath showed Lively unsolicited footage of his wife giving birth as they filmed a scene where her character does so; that Baldoni’s “best friend” was drafted in to play the obstetrician-gynaecologist in that scene, in which Lively was “nearly nude” in front of dozens of crew; that Baldoni talked to her about non-consensual sexual encounters; that he wept in her trailer over reactions to paparazzi photos from shooting that called her old and unattractive, prompting her to remind him that in those scenes her character had just been abused by her husband, and that she should look authentically distressed, not “hot”.

In January, prior to resuming filming after the Writers Guild of America strike, a meeting was held in which Lively sought to have 30 new set protections implemented. Wayfarer said: “Although our perspective differs in many aspects, ensuring a safe environment for all is paramount, irrespective of differing views. Regarding your outlined requests, we find most of them not only reasonable but also essential for the benefit of all parties involved.” One of those protections was that Lively should not be subject to retaliatory action for speaking out. Instead, her complaint seeks to illustrate that the parties behind the film allegedly engaged PR and crisis management – including a company that has represented Johnny Depp and is partly funded by music mogul Scooter Braun, who bought the masters to Swift’s first six albums – to destroy Lively’s reputation via media and social media manipulation.

“You know we can bury anyone,” crisis management expert Melissa Nathan wrote to PR executive Jennifer Abel, one of thousands of messages subpoenaed by Lively. (Bryan Freedman, a lawyer for Baldoni, called the accusations “categorically false”, saying a crisis manager was brought in due to “multiple demands and threats” allegedly made by Lively.)

In a subsequent message, Nathan told Abel that Baldoni didn’t realise how lucky he was given the allegations they had heard about his on-set conduct: “the whispering in the ear the sexual connotations like Jesus fucking Christ”.

While the film’s stars were told to keep their promotional activities positive and uplifting – “grab your friends, wear your florals and head out to see it,” Lively said in a promotional video – Baldoni, who most of the cast had unfollowed on social media, as fans had noticed, positioned himself as a feminist ally engaged with domestic violence issues. In response to the social media response “really ramping up” in terms of criticism of Lively, Nathan texted Abel: “It’s actually sad because it just shows you have people really want to hate on women.” A “scenario planning” document by Nathan’s firm, TAG PR, said it could “explore planting stories about the weaponisation of feminism and how people in [Lively’s] circle like Taylor Swift have been accused of utilising these tactics to ‘bully’ into getting what they want.” Baldoni told Heath that he “didn’t love” the document because it didn’t leave him feeling sufficiently protected.

“The weaponisation of the ‘weaponisation of feminism’.” That is how a friend in our group chat put it as we pored over the New York Times report that broke the news of Lively’s allegations and the subsequent release of her entire complaint; as we looked back, horrified, on what we had said about her in recent months (entirely in private, I hasten to add). We realised the degree to which a group of supposedly media-literate journalists were potentially manipulated by a confected misogynistic narrative; how persistent and pernicious internalised misogyny can be when another woman doesn’t meet your standards.

Of course, feminism can be weaponised and leveraged for personal gain. The flourishing of pop-cultural feminism a decade ago paved the way for “girlboss” and lean-in “feminism”, which didn’t fight for much more than a woman’s right to act and earn as rapaciously as men; it’s now considered a joke, with even girlboss creator, Sophia Amoruso, distancing herself from it in … interviews to promote her new venture capital firm. These are nuanced conversations about not allowing a fight for equality, respect and safety to be seized for self-gain. But the idea of the Hollywood and PR machines perverting that concept to discredit a woman apparently intent on ensuring the safety of herself and others – on the chaotic set of a film about ending cycles of domestic abuse – is a level of 4D chess that is terrifying in its imperceptibility, effectiveness and potential prevalence.

There is a chilling disconnect in the way the crisis and publicity parties rejoice in their apparent PR victory – “So much mixed messaging It’s actually really funny if you think about it,” Nathan texted Abel – and the covert warfare they allegedly used to manipulate the tabloid media into parroting their narrative. “This went so well I am fucking dying … We have the four majors standing down on HR complaint,” Nathan told Abel. When MailOnline published a piece in August asking “Is Blake Lively set to be CANCELLED?” Abel texted Nathan: “You really outdid yourself with this piece.” These methods are deadly, acutely attuned to how to form and nurture media and social media sentiment against a woman. As Taylor Lorenz writes in her newsletter User Mag, it takes its cues directly from the Gamergate playbook.

How many women has this happened to? How many smear campaigns have seduced our most base and ungenerous instincts into swallowing their line? How many male directors and actors successfully positioned themselves as feminist allies post-#MeToo for cynical reasons? Beyond celebrity narratives, how has this affected how we perceive the women in our own lives? Culturally, we seem to have progressed – rather,regressed – from ostracising figures who act badly to grasping for politically legible ways to take against anyone whose greatest crime might be “seeming a bit annoying”. Is someone “not a girl’s girl”, as you often hear online, or do they just have different values to you? Does their behaviour just feel confrontational and uncomfortable to you because it might reflect your own insecurities?

Lively’s complaint has left my head spinning. What can you really trust? How do we question accepted narratives without descending into tin-hatted conspiracy theory? Why do so many people hate women this much? How much internalised misogyny roils under my own skin every day? I’d like to reach for a cute ending, to say that through assiduous, informed questioning and acute media literacy, cases like Lively’s might, you know, end with us. But the truth is I don’t think we stand a chance.

[eden-writes-stuff]

Christmas 1981

Tags: Jegulus, Wolfstar, Marylily, Dorlene, mention of a sex toy (not in active use, just as a gift), they talk a lot about Jegulus' sex life (again, no details), platonic moonwater, platonic marylene,

James Potter was a dead man! 

Sirius would definitely kill him

"Why would you get my little brother a fucking sex toy for Christmas?!"

Remus and Regulus stood in the corner, watching the spectacle, eating the most delicious biscuits, which Effie had made for today.

"You weren't supposed to see it", James cried, obviously trying not to laugh.

"And that makes it okay how?!" "Well... it leaves you out of your brother's sex life?" "A life which he only has because of you!" James obviously didn't know the right answer to that.

Next to Remus Regulus swallowed a Jammie Dodger and started coughing. Mary and Marlene joined them just as Regulus caught his breath again.

"What did we miss?" "Sirius saw the gift Prongs was giving to Regulus and now he's accusing him of making Reg have a sex life." 

"Is he serious?"

Three pairs of eyes met Marlene, who sighed, immediately realising her mistake. "Just be glad he didn't hear it", she murmured, resting her chin on Mary's shoulder.

"Regulus is a grownup. He's allowed to have se-." Sirius yelled from the top of his lungs, interrupting James. Everyone in the room visibly winced at the high-pitched noise. "Can we PLEASE stop talking about my little brother's sex life!" "Yeah, I second that", Regulus agreed.

"Cool. Now can we talk about how Marls and Cas definitely did it in the guest room yesterday?", Mary grinned "Oh, shut up!" with that, Marlene stormed off, followed by James, who used the distraction to make a quick escape.

Remus walked up to a pouting Sirius, while the others left as well. "You gonna be mad all Christmas?", he asked, taking his place next to Sirius on the couch.

"Am I overreacting?" "Yes." Sirius sighed, leaning his head against Remus' shoulder. "It's understandable though. Reg is your little brother. You took care of him all his life. Of course, you still see him as someone you need to protect."

"I know James would never hurt him. I just... I don't know. He's my baby brother. Also, now my present is gonna suck. Who wants a stupid book when you can get laid instead?" Remus laughed softly and kissed his head.

"I would be happy about both." "You'd want James to do you for Christmas?" Sirius raised an eyebrow, earning a chuckle from Remus. Somehow he always managed to make him smile "Well, I'm sure he doesn't disappoint from what I've heard..." Regulus had spared him most details, but he knew that James knew what he was doing. But Remus also knew that nothing would ever compare to the feeling of being close to Sirius.

"Not you too", Sirius groaned. Remus just shook his head, grinning before stealing a kiss. "Would a present from me cheer you up?" "It might", Sirius beamed with anticipation. Remus quickly disappeared into the next room before returning with a package behind his back.

The 'Greatest Hits' Queen album had hit the market in early November and since then it had been close to Sisyphean to keep Sirius from buying it.

Now, as he saw him on the couch, smiling expectantly, it was all worth it. Sirius ripped the paper from the present and let out a high squeak as he saw the first letters appear. He launched forward, wrapping his arms around his boyfriend. "I never would have guessed that. How did you even get the idea? I'm so surprised", he grinned sarcastically. Remus leaned back, eyeing him with a raised eyebrow.

"You knew?" Of course, he knew. He was Sirius after all. Remus should have known that he knew. Sirius shrugged, smiling innocently. "You said I shouldn't buy it because 'I have all the songs on the other records.' And that from the guy who owns four editions of 'The Picture of Dorian Grey'" "Not my best excuse, I admit", he grinned shyly. But what else could he have said?

"I still love it", Sirius said before Remus could start spiralling. Remus smiled softly, pulling Sirius closer by the hips. "And I love you." "Even better." He could feel the boy's breath on his lips as he leaned in for a kiss.

"As cute as the two of you are, can you please come to the living room?", Peter interrupted from the door. "James said we won't start with the actual presents until everyone is there."

Sirius turned slightly toward their friend, neither of them letting go of each other. "Jealous, Pete? Maybe in the Christmas spirit, we'd let you join?", he teased. Both of them knew that Peter had never really been interested in these things. And Remus knew that Sirius would never ever let anyone else close to him.

"Thanks, but no thanks. Neither of you is my type." Sirius let out a sound of mock-offence "But we're so hot. And so likable."

He threw his arms around Remus and started sobbing heavily. Remus had learned years ago that it was best to play along, so he softly patted his back. "There there. Not everyone has taste", he said flatly.

From the corner of his eye, he noticed Peter shaking his head. "Will you please get him into the living room when you're finished here?", he sighed before disappearing into the corridor.

Sirius continued for a few seconds but soon lifted his head. "Oh, good, he's finally gone." Remus raised an eyebrow. "You probably could have asked him to give us a few more minutes. Don't have to traumatise the poor guy", he answered but Sirius simply shrugged, pulling him into a long kiss.

For that, it had all been worth it. Kissing Sirius was always worth it. Even after six years it still filled him with all these warm and fuzzy feelings when he pulled him closer by the waist or when Sirius' hands found themselves in his hair.

"The others are waiting", he murmured against his lips, although just the idea of breaking the kiss was almost physically painful.

"Let them wait", Sirius answered,  pulling him in again. With a sigh, Remus gave in.

It was always worth it.

A/N: And that concludes our journey to Christmas. I hope you enjoyed reading it at least as much as I enjoyed writing it. Now that this is finally done I can get back to working on the requests I've got on the line (don't worry, I haven't forgotten you.)

[aidenelsa]

and i won't confess that i waited but i let the lamp burn as the men masqueraded i hoped you'd return with your feet on the ground tell me all that you'd learned cause love's never lost when perspective is earned and you said you'd come and get me but you were 25 and the shelf life of those fantasies has expired lost to the lost boys chapter of your life forgive me peter, please know that i tried to hold onto the days when you were mine but the woman who sits by the window has turned out the light

[sororygilmore]

YOU SAY THAT I'M A MESS, OH JUST WAIT TILL I MAKE IT HURT 'CAUSE BABE LAST TIME I CHECKED THE TWO OF US WERE MESSIER-ER-ER

[ice-sculptures]

i got some regrets i'll bury them in floridaaaAAAAAaaaaa!!!!!

[two-dolla-bills]

I like you, here's my interpretation of the mechanisms' motif!

[wouldntbehim]

mix: firstprince (taylor's version)

[illeniram]

You may have all the intelligence you want, but you will never know everything.

[lokh]

Im gonna need your like, whole musical rec list, bc literally every song you have posted has not flopped once, give me your faves i need to eat them

OUGHHH YOUVE UNLOCKED THE BEAST ARGSHHFHJDF....

in the interest of making this both easily accessible but not stretching the dashboard, im embedding bandcamp links when i can, otherwise linking to youtube when unavailable

in no particular order, inclusion based mostly on what im still actively into LMAO but also just things you should give a go at least once:

list of artist recommendations

zeal and ardor: described as a mix of african-american spirituals and black metal. try devil is fine, you aint coming back, wake of a nation or church burns

bloodywood: indian folk metal, literally nobody is doing it like them. recently featured in monkey man (2024), try chakh le, yaad or dana dan

stromae: if youve never heard any of his songs WHAT ARE YOU DOING..... incredible lyricist, described as a blend of hip hop/electronic. papaoutai made the rounds on tumblr a while back, but you should also try santé and l'enfer

alamat: pinoy pop. a youtube commenter described them as sounding like 2nd gen kpop which probably also explains why i took a shine to them LMAO, notable for the amount of filipino culture on display and the diversity thereof (singing in different languages, themes). first heard them thru kasmala either here or on twitter lmao, try aswang or maharani

andy bull: alt-pop. a lot of poppy and upbeat songs with a melancholic undertone imo. an australian artist, try it's all connected or keep on running

cosmo sheldrake: electronic, wikipedia also lists him as folktronica and baroque pop. you may have heard the song come along on an apple ad - hes known for sampling sounds from nature. pliocene for example features sounds from endangered ecosystems.

if you like cosmo sheldrake, you might like hidden orchestra (electronica, ambient). also making use of field recordings, i really love the archipelago mixtape but its a hard sell at about an hour lmao. if you like the following song then i implore you to give it a go

son lux: experimental, you may have heard from them in the entire soundtrack for everything everywhere all at once (!!!!!). try dangerous, dream state (brighter night) or live another life.

ammar 808: electronic/world fusion, also behind bargou 08 (folk rock you should also listen to). i just cant get ain essouda out of my head, but i also love geeta duniki

miyavi: j-rock, used to be a visual kei artist. these days he might be known more for anime openings like flashback (kokkoku) or other side (id:invaded), or for work like snakes in arcane (or actually inspiring and voicing a character in it), but ive always been partial to his early work like sukkyanen myv or ashita, genki ni naare

songs/albums

'threads' album by now, now (indie rock).

'dream to make believe' or 'what to do when you are dead' by armor for sleep (rock, emo). here's the truth about heaven from the latter album

i already posted about it but denzel curry's 13lood 1n + 13lood out mixx (rap, trap) is extremely good

the guilty gear soundtracks and im so serious im not fucking joking. different kinds of rock and metal and all sorts of influences put in, a genuine labor of love. xrd and earlier games are mainly instrumental with some vocal tracks (try give me a break or big blast sonic), while strive pretty much always includes vocals (of course i need to rec rock parade, but also try requiem. its genuinely hard for me to pick and choose lmao)

not an album and not an artist

coke studio pakistan and coke studio bangla knocking it out of the fucking park, im particularly a fan of harkalay and kotha koiyo na. you could try the other coke studios too (tamil, india, etc)

triple j like a version is when the radio station triple j brings in artists and has them do a cover of a song (artists choice). i liked denzel curry's cover of bulls on parade and flume's shooting stars (video for this one is incredible, man had a vision you just have to stick it out), but you get a lot of interesting interpretations like the wombats' running up that hill, gordi's in the end or, infamously. the wiggles' elephant

ive DEFINITELY missed out some, but thats what my music tag is for LMAO i hope someone discovers something they like here!!!!

[kindahoping4forever]

And everyone gasped

(no one was surprised, not even a little)

[smtown-tourist]

As a certified Shawol, I want to say…

Sorry not sorry that SHINee’s whole discography SLAPS and there’s not a single bad song in their entire repertoire

[lock-my-feelings-in-a-jar]

[yellowloid]

hey! i was sort of reading “something to rely on” lyrics, and i remembered that you analyse some of miles, monkeys and tlsp songs. so, i just wanted to ask what are your thoughts on this song, cause i particularly think it’s about alex or some of it. anyway, other songs from cdg can be fully about alex, but barely no one talks about this one, so i thought it’d be great to discuss about it.

there’s also “adios tara tara” that i also think it’s about alex, as other songs from change the show, but that’s for another time! i also love your blog, your fanfics and song analysis, they’re always really good! 🫶

sooo first of all sorry for being this late lmao this is kinda embarrassing because this ask was sent MONTHS ago maybe almost a year ago it was so long ago i literally don't remember. i'm only just answering now BUT better late than never i guess skgshdfh

(as usual don't take this too seriously lmao this is just a silly theory, i'm in no way implying it's the truth. it's just delusion o'clock)

now, if you follow me you know what i think of coup de grace as an album - and that is, the fact that it's soooo about alex it's crazy like. bro was so angry and in love and heartbroken????? and he wrote a literal masterpiece of an album????? that's iconic if you ask me

so to no one's surprise, let's follow the usual theory - them having some sort of falling out after eycte because of miles getting serious and alex consequently chickening out, which led to Peak Gay Drama Year, also known as 2018, when they both release albums that - more or less explicitly - contain images that could easily be interpreted as references to each other. something to rely on is no exception:

"crescent moon, left in my drive / all too soon, you made your point"

the reference to the moon creates a pattern, since the semantic field of astral entities is also present in songs such as killing the joke, with "interstellar, dressed in leather, drinking bitter boy" - which as we all know is one of miles' most direct lines when it comes to referencing alex, and it can easily be linked to am's own space-themed album, which miles definitely got to listen before its official release date.

opening the song with a reference to the moon could be a way of @ a certain someone, letting him know that yes, this song *is* in fact about him, if he didn't get the other billion hints in the whole album. (however, for the sake of keeping it vague, i won't be referring to him directly but rather to a ~mysterious person~) (i'm sure you get my point tho *wink wink*) [gunshots]

mentioning the moon could also be a way of referencing the ever-present theme of nighttime encounters in the entirety of mk/am/tlsp's discography: sometimes those encounters are described as fun, sometimes they mean trouble; sometimes, they leave the people involved with a sense of guilt and/or shame, on which we'll come back later and which often leads to bad decisions ("all too soon, you made your point"). in this particular case, the first image that comes to my mind is someone leaving sneakily after a (series of) one-night stands, with the song obviously being from the pov of the person being left, who also gives us a reason why they think the other person left:

"keeping off the radar, how does that make you feel? / keeping it clean, through all the things you wanted me to be / out of touch, with all the rumors i keep hearing of you / keeping off the radar, how does that make you feel?"

this person doesn't seem to want other people to know about their affair, and that's why they keep it secret; it seems that they want miles to be something he's not, or something he can't be - or maybe they ask all these things of themselves, which would maybe make it easier for them to accept the relationship going public. this person wants to keep it neat and clean, picture-perfect and fitting to everything everyone expects from them; but as much as they try to stay lowkey and not attract attention, the narrator informs us that no matter how much this person tries to hide, there's still rumors going around about them, as an individual as well as their relationship(s) with other people, most likely with the narrator too.

"all aboard the guilt train / last call before we leave / last call before we learn to love / the last call before we leave"

the line referring to guilt is insanely queer-coded and i will die on this hill because it just SCREAMS internalised homophobia, with which the other person might be struggling. it wouldn't make sense otherwise - because what would that person feel guilty about, if it were a straight-passing relationship? unless it was a cheating situation, of course... but it could be a cheating situation AND also a queer one, with this person being in another (het) relationship while having a same-sex lover (the narrator), which would give that line a double explanation. also every time i listen to this song i just can't help but think about 'all aboard the kane train' WHAT WHO SAID THAT

however, the narrator tells us that this is the "last call before we leave" - meaning, he's giving this person an ultimatum to make up their mind and decide if they want to be with him for real or not, since the latter possibility would result in him leaving - not necessarily for good, but... just trying to get over that person once and for all. at the same time, though, it's also the "last call before we learn to love" - which is incredibly soft imo, because it's him still putting trust and hope into that person and a positive decision on their part. he believes they will eventually choose to be with him, he hopes for it and trusts the other person to make the right decision, which would lead to them being together and learning how to love each other without limits nor second-guesses. the repetition of the leaving line could also be seen as a way for him to give it a new meaning compared to the first one: if they ended up together, they could leave that world based on nasty rumors and appearances, ignoring them all to just be happy together. because, after all, miles declares it openly:

"you're all that i wanted / all that i need / you're all that i wanted / you're all that i need"

i mean. does this even need an explanation. bro is down BAD

"something to rely on / something to get high on / i don't want to beg or steal, i don't want to borrow hearts / i just want to make it real / something to rely on / the making of a mystery, wishing on a falling star / i don't want to let this sadness rule my heart / your actions from the start / in spite of me insightfully inviting me to fall apart"

i left the chorus last because imo it captures perfectly the whole vibe of the song and what i think is miles' outlook on life in general: the narrator wants something stable and secure, an established relationship with the other person; he doesn't want to have to beg and argue and make it more complicated than it probably already is, he doesn't want to be a pastime or just some lover. he wants something thrilling and intense, almost addictive - but most importantly, he wants something real. this complicated situation with the other person is making them both suffer, and the other person's behaviour doesn't make it any easier; but in spite of everything, and in spite of his sense of self-preservation, he still finds himself unable and unwilling to resist them, to let them go for good. and no matter how self-destructive this might be, he doesn't want to be ruled by negative emotions; he's already fallen for them, too deep to even consider letting them go. he just keeps falling, and yeah, the outcome of their situationship might still be a mystery, but he chooses to be hopeful - "wishing on a falling star", bringing the song to a circular end by mentioning other astral entities that inevitably remind us of the "crescent moon" that opens the song. which also evokes the idea of circularity that is typical of situationships like the one described here, where the moment he seems to have made up his mind (or maybe the other person finally did?) it's like rinse and repeat, and once again they're back to square one.

[penguin-in-a-box]

I'm not sure why everyone says Renegade is about Joe and uses this as ammunition towards Taylor to prove she's insensitive towards him when it's... So clearly a result of the conversation she and Aaron Dessner have in the Peace section of the Long Pond Sessions about anxiety and Aaron's own insecurities about how a partner may interpret his struggle with anxiety?

Like maybe it's not that deep y'all. Maybe it's based off that experience of fearing how a partner would react to their own mental health issues. Maybe it's harsh because it's what they're hearing in their heads.

I have never seen anyone on tumblr ever consider that take despite?? It feeling kinda obvious??

If there's some lore I'm unaware of by all means lay it on me.

[aberooski]

I always know which songs are gonna be underrated/slandered on an album because they're my favorite song(s) 🙃

[waugh-bao]

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